Bob Barr Liberates Himself from GOP

From campaign finance reform to foreign policy to budgeting for social services, former Republican Rep. Bob Barr blasted the two major parties yesterday while announcing that he’s running for president on the Libertarian ticket. “The government has run amok fiscally,” Barr said at a news conference, according to the Los Angeles Times. “The federal government needs to get away from the notion that simply because we have all this money in the treasury–or we can borrow more money–that we can provide all these services.”

Barr, who helped successfully push through Bill Clinton’s impeachment and who lost his House seat to redistricting in 2002, has maintained his leadership political action committee since then, allowing him to raise money and funnel it to current lawmakers. Since 2001 he has raised $4.7 million and given $106,050 to Republicans, Democrats and Libertarians (though mostly Republicans) through his PAC called the Bob Barr Leadership Fund. So far this cycle he has raised $1.5 million and given away just $41,300–always a sign that a politician has his sights set on running for something. The PAC’s largest contributions in ’07-’08 have to lawmakers from Barr’s home state of Georgia–$9,500 to Republican Rep. Paul Broun and $3,500 to Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss.

Some political analysts say that Barr, who is expected to win the Libertarian nomination this month, could take votes away from the likely Republican nominee, John McCain. Barr said he believes McCain is not committed to cutting the size of the government and blasted him for sponsoring a key campaign finance law that capped individual donations to lawmakers, a move Barr said no serious conservative could make, “at least with a straight face.”

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